JOHN DUNCAN 



WEAVER A til) .BOTANIST. 

 CHAPTER I. 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND EARLY TRAINING. 



ABOUT sixteen miles south of Aberdeen, the wild rock- 

 bound shore of the Mearns, lashed by the German Ocean, 

 is indented by a spacious bay, into which flow two small 

 streams, the Cowie and the Carron. Like the Don and 

 the Dee, these rivers once entered the sea at separate 

 points, though now they unite their waters just before 

 mingling with the ocean. The secure harbour here formed, 

 which has often been talked of as a port of refuge for the 

 east coast, and the wide and fertile double valley beyond 

 drew human habitation at an early period ; and two 

 villages, whose origin is hid in antiquity, grew at the 

 mouths of these streams. The village to the north was 

 named after the river on which it stood, the Cowie, and 

 still exists beside the picturesque ruins of St. Mary's 

 Chapel, amidst its crowded and weed-waving graveyard. 

 The hamlet at the mouth of the Carron took its descriptive 



B 



